Domestique Bliss

Monday, 19 January 2015

We're back! Welcome to the third annual Domestique Bliss review of the pro peloton. Last year's was hosted by the lovely folks over at Cyclismas (check it here if you're interested), and 2013's was the blog post that started it all (here, if the mood takes you).Ag2r - La Mondiale

Ladies.

I can confirm that there is not a gun in my pocket.

Photo - velonews.com

Brown shorts. I've said it before and I'll say it again (and own it goddamn it), I really don't hate this. Yes, I know everyone else does, but I'm genuinely not sure why, especially given some of the sartorial abominations present and correct in this year's offerings. Katusha have been training in red tights for fucks sake. Plus, brown shorts make a lot of sense given we all know the pitfalls of a bad gel.

Most likely to be seen: Unexpectedly winning things.

Astana

I would totally buy a used car from this man.

Photo - astana.com

Turquoise, back by dope demand. Such a trustworthy colour.

Most likely to be seen: Hanging around looking nonchalant outside CAS.

BMC

No.

Photo - velonews.com

BMC, your kit needed a facelift last year. Nothing too drastic, maybe just a little nip and tuck, perhaps a fresher detail or two, maybe a subtle accessory here and there. But, alas, you left well alone, and you're starting to look a bit…. drab to be honest.

Yes.

Photo - velonews.com

Hey, wanna know what BMC do do well? National Champs kits. Taylor Phinney looks freaking awesome in the Captain America skinsuit. And as we all know, looking freaking awesome is worth 15 seconds in a 10km tt.

Most likely to be seen: telling pretty girls they got their badass scars in knife fights with pirates.

Cannondale - Garmin

My eyes are pies, and yours are lies.

Pic - Cycling Weekly

Will nobody think of the Pandas?
Oh, how sweet this could have been. Garmin really hit their kit stride in 2014 with a cheeky little blue white and red number that should have looked absolutely awesome merged with the Cannondale lime, giving the 2015 peloton the technicolour pro jersey it so deserved. Sadly, somewhere during the design process someone went a shade too dark, setting off a Johnny Nice Painter* Episode that left the kit as black as the endless black of space that leads to the chasm of clams. A bit of detailing with a green highlighter is all that is left of what could have been a masterpiece.

*Never heard of Johnny Nice Painter? Get thee to Youtube and binge-watch Fast Show sketches immediately, you philistine.
Most likely to be seen: With daft helmets and glasses.

Etixx - Quickstep

Porn star or oil spill? You decide.Photo - cyclingnews.com

It's a reassuring constant in a complex and uncertain world that the Whatever - Quickstep kit will be fucking awful. The latest to put their name on the front are Etixx - a sports nutrition company trying to buck the association of the double x with porn stars and oil spills. Good luck with that.

Most likely to be seen: Just behind Kittel, thumping their handlebars.

FDJ

Photo - velonews.com

The wet weather danger kit resurfaces to fight another day, and throws a couple of trompe l'oeil triangles in for good measure. Am I swerving left? Am I swerving right? Psyche!

Most likely to be seen: Pixellated during a rainy TTT. Ahoy!

Giant-Alpecin

Race you to the showers!Photo - velonews.com

Top German makers of shampoo sponsor team including top German winner of races and haver of hair. Not since CVNDSH for HD & SHLDRS has a hair and cycling cross-marketing mash-up been so lip-smacking.

Are you flake free Marcel? Are you?

Photo - www.bluntlondon.com

So it's a bit of a shame the kit is so dull. Black. Blue bits. Red bits. White writing. It's only during the post race slo-mo when they take off their helmets, shake out their fabulous hair and turn to camera and wink that we'll be able to tell them apart from the Skys, IAMs and Treks. Because they're bloody well worth it.

Most likely to be worn with: - Dude, is that lipgloss?

Haircare sponsor dudes clearly missed a trick. Just saying.

Photo - www.obra.org

IAM Cycling

Um, this is actually really nice.

Photo - velonews.com

Welcome to the WorldTour; I think you missed a memo. I mean, full marks for the dark 'n red, so far so identical to everyone else, but as for the finished article - well we're not really doing tasteful this year. Sit yourselves in the middle of the bunch and try not to cause any upsets, there's dears.

Most likely to be seen: Sat in the middle of the bunch, not causing any upsets.

Well, at least we'll see them. Not to be outdone by Tinkoff Saxo, Katusha have added a splash of fluoro to their standard red and white look. Top's ok, shorts not so much, team issue red leggings belong on department store Christmas Grotto pixies only.

Most likely to be seen: Having a serious dig in the Grand Tours.

Lampre-Merida

Pic - cyclingnews.com

No change (unconfirmed) from last year's predominantly dark blue effort - which to be fair is probably the best looking Lampre kit on record. It's a sad day when it makes a refreshing change to see snot green and epiglottis pink accents on a kit instead of red and blue.

Most likely to be seen: as underdogs

Lotto Soudal

Yeah, we look good.

Photo - roadcyclinguk.com

Lotto Soudal change a sponsor, but retain the honour of having the best kit in the peloton. The retro styling looks sharp and - Katusha, I am looking at you - teaming the red jersey with black shorts looks great. They'll win everything between now and March.

Most likely to be seen: Going hard down under.

LottoNL - Jumbo

Does my bum look big in this?

Photo - @LottoJumbo_road

Are you calling me fat though?

Photo - velonews.com

'Dude, we all agreed. You got the short straw and it's your turn to sponsor them.' Woeful. Just…. woeful. Terrible colour, appalling typefaces, and printing 'Jumbo' on anyone's thighs, even a pro cyclist's, is just mean.

Most likely to be seen: On a valiant but sadly doomed breakaway.

Movistar

Cheeky little scamps.Photo - velonews.com

No change for Movistar, but sadly their sophisticated dark blue look has been assimilated into the rest of the peloton so they no longer stand out. Cue much slapstick hilarity in the feed zones.

Most likely to be seen: 300 metres up the road. Grinning.

Orica - GreenEDGE

Invert it, damn you.

Pic - cyclingnews.com

Another no change (unconfirmed) on a good looking kit. Mix it up next year, Orica, Green (EDGE) is the new blue.

Most likely to be seen: In a post-race dance-off with Team Sky.

Sky

No change for the team that made all the other teams black with a blue bit and some white writing. Well, why would you?

I'll just leave this here for a moment.

Photo - Chris Froome via Road.cc

Skinsuit inspiration. Perm optional.

Photo - Vogue.com

Most likely to be seen: Missing Wiggo.

Tinkoff - Saxo

Tell us, how much of a bell end do you feel?

Photo - velonews.com

I genuinely thought last year's Tinkoff Saxo kit was as bad as it could get, and man was I wrong. Bucking the peloton trend for dark hues and refined palettes, and lording their oligarch-sponsored print budget over the more monochrome teams, Tinkoff opt for horrific amounts of retina scorching fluorescent yellow teamed with a comedy codpiece crotch in smurfette blue. The stuff of nightmares.

The only thing worse than the standard race kit is Peter Sagan's Slovakian National Champ kit.

There is nothing else to say on the matter, except if for any reason you are not following @dwuori on twitter you are doing the internet wrong.

Which is strange, as Tinkoff Saxo issued themselves an extra kit for training, and it's…. cool. Listen, I was a teenager in the 90's and I'll heart camo print til the day I die, but I really think this works. Different, nice work with the fluoro, even the corporate logos don't look quite so ashamed. Switch them out Oleg, I implore you.

Another gem from @dwuori.

"Tinkov warns that continuing sanctions could result in sale of imaginary horse"

Most likely to be seen: Either from a hundred miles away, or not at all til it's too late.

Trek Factory Racing

The most interesting thing Trek have done in about a hundred years is install Elder Statesman Jens Voigt as 'Ambassador of Awesome'.

Get off my lawn.

Photo - wikipedia

Sadly, Awesome must have been working from home the day the new team kit was signed off. 2014's yawn pinstripes are back, the shoulders are a little whiter, and they checked down the back of the sofa and scraped together the money for a couple of splashes of (hey! Guess what!) red and blue per jersey.

Last one back to the team hotel has to listen to his stories about the war.

Friday, 28 June 2013

Star Tours

Episode C A NEW NEW HOPE.

It is time of great change. Unrest in the Senate has spread,
old enemies have fallen, and a renewed hope for peace and justice has swept the
remnants of the Galactic Empire.

The REBEL ALLIANCE grows stronger, determined to bring an
end to the deadlock by overthrowing the crumbling old order and restoring
balance to the galaxy once and for all.

Meanwhile, shadowy figures gather, not yet prepared to
relinquish their desperate grip on power, and willing to use the seductive pull
of the dark side of the force to destroy the rebels who stand in their way….

The lovely folks at Cyclismas have taken a deep breath and agreed to take a punt on my silliness for the duration of the Tour de France. If you want to see what's going to happen, you'll just have to keep your eyes on http://www.cyclismas.com/. In the meantime, have a look at http://vimeo.com/69223555. Above animated at 06.40, but don't skip, you'll miss too much.

I'm a bit confused by her use of 'training' in this context - to describe activity done without purpose. To my mind, training is and always has been a means to an end, not the end itself. However, here I find myself, end-less, about to become a trainee without a cause, unless you can stretch the term 'cause' to cover 'being a bit less wobbly in the central region and able to go up 3 flights of stairs without hacking up a lung', and I've tried and I can't.

I'm actually feeling quite motivated and suddenly it all seems so easy. Dig myself out of bed. Dig my kit out of one of the still-unsorted piles from the move that are dumped in the spare room, roughly divided into 'my shit', 'your shit', 'kids shit', 'miscellaneous shit', and 'do we really need this shit'. Insert one in to the other. Find the helmet and glasses, that I'm sure I've seen around here somewhere. Dig the bike out of the ManCave. Take a deep breath, and get out and ride said bike a bit. Bingo bango. Hell I might even enjoy it, who knows.

I start by examining the bike. Stacked in the ManCave, my bike has been woefully neglected, and partially cannibalised by the bigger bikes. When I get to her she's basically up on bricks - the cyclist having 'borrowed' her inner tubes for spares. Supportive of my mission, the cyclist untangles the hosepipe which has snaked itself around her, replaces all items removed, and cleans and mechanics the shit out of her for me. She sparkles. 'Come on then chubby, let's get you some thighs to die for', she whispers.

I've decided to do this stealth-style, weekend morning, crack of dawn, while the rest of the world sleeps. My public excuse is the avoidance of traffic, my deep dark personal one is the avoidance of being seen. However, somehow word must have got out, as 6AM on a weekend in a sleepy backwater middle-of-nowhere and you can't bloody move for cyclists and runners and ramblers and campers and farmers and cheery opportunist thieves, and I may as well have sold tickets to my debut performance as I self consciously shuffle down the lane and onto the road.

I blame the movies. Training is reduced to a 90-second montage with a pumping and uplifting 80’s power-soundtrack.By the key-change, our hero has a fetching sweat-V and is taking the steps three at a time, ready to show Dolph Lundgren who's boss. That is not quite how this played out.

300 yards up the road I have swallowed my first fly. 600, and my legs burn and my saddle (bum) is uncomfortable (killing me). 3 miles in I am hunched over the handlebars, contemplating toppling on to the grass verge at the side of the road to
await the sweet embrace of death, sobbing the only two lines of 'Eye of the Tiger’ anyone actually knows over and over and over again, when the
local geriatric club run pootles past me.These guys have an average age of about 400, and aren't even breaking a sweat. They
don’t even bother to get out of earshot before they start to piss themselves laughing at my expense.
One of them is shaking so hard he actually has to unclip a foot to
maintain his balance.The utter bastard.

'That’s not very friendly and inclusive' I try to shout
after them, but it comes out a bit like a squeak and a cough, and they laugh
harder. One day,
I swear to myself, shakily taking a hand off the bars to wipe the snot from my chin with the back of my hand, one day I
will ride these old men down and fuck them up.

My resolve is completely galvanised by this experience. My legs actually start to shift of their own accord. It might not be nice, it might not be worthy, but my training may have just discovered itself a purpose after all - the vengeful and complete destruction, nay annihilation, of this band of evil old men. The iPod in my head shuffles. Sod the 'Eye of the Tiger', this training montage has itself a new theme
tune.